For those of you who say “I could never teach at an inner-city school because I would lose my mind” or “I could never teach at an inner-city school because it’s too rough”

I teach English in a ‘thug school’. We have a 70% graduation rate, 2/3 of our students are chronically absent each month, 90% of our students are on free lunch, and 20% of our students are Group Home students. We have an on-campus police force and a suspension room. The bathrooms are locked and students must have a pass to enter them.<br><br>For the last decade, my principal has intentionally hired more teachers from out-of-state (or out-of-country) rather than local teachers, because he believes that hiring teachers from a different background/ culture eliminates a lot of the inherent bias that in-state teachers may have. Our student population is 80% Hispanic and 15% Black.<br><br>I’m not saying it’s perfect. There are problems. There are gangs. There are drugs. There is teen pregnancy. There is neglect and abuse. There is murder. But for every one of those problems, there is a story. <br><br>I grew up in a suburb of Chicago and went to a school that was 90% white and 5% black. My father was a high school dropout and my mother has her bachelors degree. I have never been to jail, I do not do drugs, I do not drink alcohol, and I do not smoke. I don’t know what it’s like to live in these students’ shoes. <br><br>But when I look out at my classes, full of students who are labeled the dregs of society by many of my colleagues, I see students. I see children who are trying to figure out their lives. I see students who make bad decisions and know it. I see students who want to be better. I see students who are working hard to make it out of the cycle of poverty and gang life and abuse. <br><br>These students are not thugs. They are not animals. I get so tired of hearing those words thrown around by teachers. I get tired of hearing, “Well, they’re just not built for success,” or “Yeah, he’s a thug,” or “Oh, she’s pregnant AGAIN,” or “Yeah, they’re just not adjusted to school,” or “It’s just how they are,” or “They’re animals.”<br><br>Part of the problem is that teachers from suburbia come in with a savior complex and are shocked when the students don’t bow down and kiss their feet in thanks. They give them Disney/tsunami/narnia and then act like they’re doing the kids a favor. They ignore the issues present on our campus and pretend that it’s just like their old school, except with more brown kids. Except it’s not. <br><br>These kids don’t need saving. They need someone to listen to them. To take them seriously. To treat them as equals. To stop with the pity and start with the compassion.<br><br>I have one student who was kicked out of 4 different high schools for gang activity before coming to my school. He’s the president of our Playwriting Club now and will be attending university in the Fall. <br><br>I have another student who was shot in the chest when she was 15. She had to relearn how to walk and is partially paralyzed. She couldn’t speak English when she moved here from Central America 5 years ago. She was accepted to Harvard last week and will be attending in the Fall.<br><br>I have another student who is a father of 2 and works 45 hours a week on top of school. He will be attending university in the Fall.<br><br>I have another student who was kidnapped by a gang and forced into indentured servitude for a year. She just won a statewide award for a short story she wrote.<br><br>My school has something that no place else in the student’s lives might have: stability. Consistency. And most of all, a commitment to see them through to the end, no matter how difficult it gets.<br><br>If you think you could never teach at an inner-city school because of the kids, then you’re not seeing the kids wrong, you’re seeing yourself wrong. Take some time to reflect on why you feel that way. Is it because you think you’re too good for them? Because you feel like you’d be 'slumming it’ if you taught at an inner-city school? Because you’re scared of the students?<br><br>They aren’t scary. They are children. 15 years old. Kids who are doing the best they can with what they’ve been given in life.<br><br>Teaching at an inner-city school is not something that you should be praised for or feel noble for. It is the most rewarding and most harrowing thing I have ever done. I would not trade it for the world.<br><br>And if you still think you could never teach at an inner-city school, that’s fine. But don’t pretend like it’s because of the kids. They’re not the problem.<br><br>It’s you.